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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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...some steps further: I soldered out the chips and put it directly onto the programmer. All voltages are correct according to the datasheet EXCEPT Pin7, which should be 3,3V is at 5V (4,3V in the circuitry). But the chip is readable. while programming Pin7 voltage should be low (IS low while reading), but is 2,75V. I now short circuited this Pin while programming to ground, so that "low" is really low==0V. Still the chip refuses to be written.
I now will test a new chip, which is on it's way.
Hello, I would like to see if you could support me, since I tried with a K2000m but the screen is completely black screen, I tried with the executable USB LINUX method, but it does not execute, based on the information that It is on the internet this GPU is compatible, I don't know if you can advise me on what step I am doing wrong, thank you very much !!!so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.
I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive
I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login
Steps
Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file
mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download
Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)
Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me
Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)
Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP
SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password:flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac
Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash
read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also
(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)
There is a Unix terminal command called diff to compare ascii text and binary files. You may use it and check it yourself. This is not a Genius Bar.
Nvidia Quadro K1100M - 2Gb Elpida VRAM
The following is a K1100M vbios for those of you that have the Elpida based GPU. The K1100M_EG2.rom does not have entries for -Elpida vram equipped cards and it will not function.
@The_Croupier, thank you for the headsup, you are correct, this was an issue in the past, but I think I have it solved now.
K1100M_EG2 rom:
@Streetgamer010, thank you for testing <his screenshots to come>.
According to my personal database, there is also another user @Chris2020 who also uses a K1100M with Eplida.
I've kept the boost low to make sure it will be compatible as much as possible with the Eplida memory.
For now, you still will need to use OpenCore for your boot screen and brightness parameters with this vbios.
Enjoy!
Insanely Great!
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I have OpenCore on a SD and it has been working perfect for months, but after a PRAM reset it is not launching. This is on my main iMac "SCOOBY" which contains a WX7100. The only way I've been able to load OpenCore from the SD is by detaching the internal SSD. With that done it boots to the OC selection screen, and I can start High Sierra from a USB stick and select "Catalina Loader" as the startup disk. Unfortunately as soon as I reconnect the internal SSD I'm back to not seeing the OpenCore boot screen again. I assume reattaching the SSD makes it become primary. Is there a trick I'm missing?
Yes, the trick is you need to have an OS running and booting even without OpenCore on the first partition of your first internal HDD/SSD, I recommend High Sierra and I am sooo sure that we have described this before.
Doing a PRAM reset currently wipes the default booting object and the system will use it's natural boot order (like any PC) which might be 1st SATA port, 2nd SATA port, SD, DVD, USB (or whatever).
The next obstacle: You cannot bless the Catalina Loader EFI from Big Sur, i.e. you cannot make to the primary boot object.
You can have more than one disk installed in your 2011 to overcome this obstacle. Make sure to connect your High Sierra fail save SSD/HDD on the port which is booted from 1st after a PRAM reset (I guess it is the one where the original HDD (SATA 0) has been connected to before.
Of course you can install your EFI folder into the EFI partition (which is /dev/disk0s1 by default). Than you can do PRAM resets all the time.
Problem comes up, it you install there a broken OpenCore EFI....
I just had some problems because of my router wich made me think about this. Had a problem with the port access. Thank you
OpenCore on the (metal) iMac Mid 2011
@NOTNICE an me played around with OpenCore 0.6.8 and tried to pass the time of patching systems. We came close and we want to share our findings with a greater audience, now.Notes:
- This EFI has been created with OCLP for an iMac 12,2 - do not use with a different iMac. Just use OCLP to create your EFI.
- This version is out of date and has been replaced by OCLP in every aspect.
- I left this version just to document the methods we tried.
What is it?
It is a complete EFI folder containing OpenCore 0.6.8 and some Apple High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina kernel extension to inject.
What GPU should I have?
This package has been tested with AMD cards and offers nearly full functionality using this GPU type.
Why should I use this?
Using OpenCore it changes your iMac 2011 to an iMacPro1,1. You can now install Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur without needing a patcher just by downloading the stock Apple installer applications named Install macOS Mojave/Catalina/Big Sur and start them using the Finder.
You get access to apple OTA upgrades (Apple software update). You can install the latest and greatest updates.
What systems can I use?
Tests have been made with:
Mid 2011/AMD WX4130 test system with Mojave (18G9018), Catalina (19H1026) and Big Sur (20D81) unpatched and (20D81) micropatched with AppleHDA.kext only (SIP disabled)
(Mid 2010/AMD RX480 test system Catalina (19H1026) and Big Sur (20D81) unpatched)
(Mid 2009/AMD RX480 test system Mojave and Big Sur (20D81) unpatched)
EDIT:
This config is based on OCLP. OCLP uses a sophisticated method to drive the legacy USB ports. Each iMac needs it's own config.plist and it is no longer possible to gain full USB functionality with a single setup. Therefor this upload works best on 2011 27, but with minor limitations also on the other above listed systems)
What are my benefits?
- Night Shift, Brightness Control, sleep works out of the box after plain installation without any patching at all.
- OTA upgrades work, i.e. asking Apple software update for system updates as on supported systems for all there macOS versions tested!
- Atheros WiFi support has been added
- iMac12,x using an NVIDIA card with Mojave and Catalina need more testing to enable the iGPU and QuickSync correctly.
- OpenGL performance is 50% of max until you send the iMac11,x once to sleep (does not happen on iMac12,x) Will be fixed with added kernel extension named CPUFriend (iMac11,3 version already added to 0.6.8)
Put the EFI on your Catalina Loader or on your internal EFI partition (only if you have a GPU with EFI boot screen). Reboot into your installed (even classical patched) macOS. (sound will be disabled then)
Install one of the name macOS versions into a new APFS partition of size 50-100GB and test there!!!
Do not apply OTA upgrades to your one and only working macOS version installed on your single iMac!
Do not play with your data.
Create a test installation!
What Do I need to know?
Unless you want to work on this project nothing more. Otherwise some Hackintosh experience will help. Basically I looked up what extensions @dosdude1 added and tried to inject them. At the very end I needed only a few to get the same and even better functionality.
What is special?
You can enable SIP (csr-active-config = 00000000) if you do not patch. You can leave it at F0FF0000 for micropatched Big Sur installations. With SIP enabled you can use File Vault etc.
After applying an update you have (sometimes) to do another reboot to get the internal display fully and correctly recognised. The internal display is working from the start.
How to develop and move on?
You can generate a new OC version using OCLP! You need to disable SecureBoot in the settings to run it on Mojave or Catalina. You need to disable SIP if you plan to run it on a patched macOS version (either @dosdude1 or micropatcher). Both settings can be disabled manually after generating the new EFI folder if you a savvy to edit the config.plist.
You would need to:
- transfer the additional kernel extensions manually and update the Kexts->Add section
- add all the DeviceProperties
- to get Windows 10 sound support on iMac12,1 and iMac12,2 you current needs to add back the SSDT patches manually (take and copy from this EFI folder)
- optionally setting the iMacPro1,1 SystemProductName in the SMBIOS section (just to enable starting macOS installers directly from Finder) OTA upgrades will work with this. This setting breaks on iMac11,x the CPU boost until the system goes to sleep for the first time. You have to decide yourself if you need this on the long run since the benefit is there only during the installation phase. You can boot a High Sierra disk having all macOS installer files and install new macOS versions as you own a supported system (no USB installer, not patcher, no hassle).
Sound is working with AppleALC thanks to @khronokernel.
As of now OCLP is has included all we need to run Big Sur with AMD and NVIDIA GPU but doesn't support using Mojave or Catalina unlike this package.
Thanks to @khronokernel for providing OCLP the HD3000 patch to disable the iGPU and bring sleep back!
Thanks to @internetzel for reporting the OpenGL issue which is basically a CPU boosting issue.
Attachments:
068.zip based on OC 0.6.8 (based on OCLP 0.0.21/0.0.22)
IO80211HighSierra.kext working properly with Mojave and Catalina (broke in OCLP 0.0.20)
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So now you've confirmed that your iMac is POSTing and booting into macOS.
Now just prepare an OpenCore USB stick or SD card, disconnect the internal drives of your iMac and that way force it to boot into OpenCore.
In case you don't a display (internal and/or external) even when booting into OpenCore there's probably something wrong with the display connection or the graphics board itself.
I have to remind you to really update to latest High Sierra as soon as possible in order to get your bootrom updated. Only the latest version is "supported" by this thread.
Yes, It has definitely been discussed before, but poor assumptions (on my part) may have clouded my understanding. I thought having High Sierra on a USB was sufficient, but perhaps that was just for boot rom updates. Nothing like learning from the school of hard knocks.
I got around the issue for now by hot plugging the SSD after OC booted (not sure if that is ill-advised), but it worked. Looks like the next step is to run fresh backups and reinstall. I may try placing OC on /dev/disk0s1, with something known good as a fail safe instead of High Sierra, and still using SD as primary OC boot. Worst case if that goes wrong I'll wipe the SSD and build it up right. Thanks as always for your advice.
BTW: I picked up another 27" iMac (mid-2011) "as-is" from Craig's List yesterday. It contains a 6970M with no screen issues, however brightness adjustments go dim to bright several times over the length of the brightness slider. Is that a sign of failure? Previous owner said it randomly shutoff a few seconds after logging into High Sierra, which I have seen even after wipe and re-install, though after playing with brightness and installing Mac Fan Control, it has become stable. I plan to replace GPU regardless, but would be nice to know if it has value or should be thrown on the scrap heap. On the fence if another WX7100 will go in this one, or the K2100M or K3000M spares I already have. I suspect new paste on the CPU, and clean fans and a new GPU may be all it needs. It passes AHT and memtest86 without issue and remains stable, otherwise I would suspect a bad DIMM is at play.
Once I square away SCOOBY I can focus on this one, which shall be named "SCOOBERT" and go on wife's desk when done.
So, if we use this OC in the EFI partition, can we install/reinstall MacOS without PRAM or “special” OC?
Waiting right now for the Ethernet and sound to work.
Like the mandalorians said, “this is the way”
About to add my new card to the heat-sink - the paste/compound is still moist, couple of questions:
1. Should I try and salvage some of the original paste (I have some new K5-Pro)
2. The new and old VRAM location do not match, should I clean the heat sink and apply new paste k5-Pro to the chip directly, or is it a case of more can't do any harm?
3. Does it matter of the paste/compound spills over the edge of the chips - it won't causes a shortage?
I don't see much different between the paste/compound used on the GPU and VRAM - is it likely the same? I am sure it is original and this mac hasn't be opened before.
Thanks.
I would recommend cleaning off all of the original thermal paste using some Isopropyl Alcohol and replacing it with new K5-Pro. This will guarantee that you will have good thermal conductivity from the GPU into the heatsink. There's no need to take a risk with using ~10-year-old paste. K5 Pro is not electrically conductive, so you can use it as much as you'd like. The thermal paste that goes on the GPU die itself (the die is the shiny chip) should be something other than K5 Pro. Arctic MX4 works well for this. K5 Pro is really meant more for RAM than directly on the GPU chip. Good luck with your project!
Listen to our developer Ausdauersportler rather than me
.I could have offered incorrect information from my retrospective old frail memory. Sorry.
No harm trying the easiest way of booting from OC to activate the internal display.
Nevertheless, you really should put back your old GPU to update to High Sierra which your iMac supports so as to update your iMac BootROM firmware before you attempt to put in your new gpu and doing any further OS upgrade with your new metal capable GPU.
Use the Dell RX560 2G vBIOS, which is the latest GOP vBIOS for WX4130. It works in my WX4130 in my iMac 2010.
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Thanks for humble guidance.Listen to our developer Ausdauersportler rather than me
I could have offered incorrect information from my retrospective old frail memory. Sorry.
No harm trying the easiest way of booting from OC to activate the internal display.
Nevertheless, you relly should put back your old GPU to update to High Sierra which your iMac supports so as to update your iMac BootROM firmware before you attempt to put in your new gpu and doing any further OS upgrade with your new metal capable GPU.
Use the Dell RX560 2G vBIOS, which is the latest GOP vBIOS for WX4130. It works in my WX4130 in my iMac 2010.
Thanks, I have decided to install back the stock HD 6970 and do following instead of opencore with totally dead displays with no indication if they will work with OC boot.
1- Get a boot with stock card (hope that works after my vbios is flashed for wx4130, Please confirm if you can)
2- Update to High Sierra
3- Disable SIP
4- Open remote login and file/screen sharing
5- Start again with WX4130 install
The VBIOS is flashed to the card itself so no change is done to the rest of the machine. You might need a PRAM/NVRAM reset - I never needed it but others did.